DuPont, EBay, Google, Lauder, SingTel: Intellectual Property

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- DuPont Co. deserves more than
$919 million in damages from South Korea’s Kolon Industries Inc.
over the theft of trade secrets involving DuPont’s Kevlar-brand
fiber, used in protective clothing for police and the military,
a jury ruled.

Jurors in federal court in Richmond, Virginia, deliberated
about 10 hours over two days before finding Gyeonggi, South
Korea-based Kolon and its U.S. unit wrongfully obtained DuPont’s
proprietary information about Kevlar by hiring some of the
company’s former engineers and marketers. The $919.9 million
award today is the third-largest jury verdict this year,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Kevlar and Nomex, a heat-resistant fiber used in
firefighting gear, accounted for about $1.4 billion of DuPont’s
$31.5 billion in sales last year. The $500 million expansion is
the biggest capacity increase since Kevlar was introduced in
1965, company officials said earlier this year.

Kolon disagrees with the verdict and will appeal, said Dan
Tudesco, a U.S.-based spokesman for the company.

The verdict “is the result of a multiyear campaign by
DuPont aimed at forcing Kolon out of the aramid fiber market,”
Tudesco said in an e-mailed statement.

DuPont, the largest U.S. chemical company by market value,
sued Kolon in February 2009 alleging it stole confidential data
about Kevlar, a bullet-resistant fiber used in body armor,
military helmets, ropes and cables. Kolon began making its own
version of Kevlar in 2005.

DuPont argued in court filings that Kolon executives
conspired with five former employees of the U.S. chemical maker
or its Japanese joint venture, DuPont-Toray Co., to gain access
to Kevlar information.

To spur sales of its Heracron aramid fiber, Kolon hired
Michael Mitchell, a former DuPont engineer who also had served
as a Kevlar marketing executive, DuPont said in court papers.
DuPont contended that Mitchell, hired as a consultant, provided
Kolon with proprietary information about the Kevlar.

Mitchell “retained certain highly confidential information
on his home computer” and passed the information to Kolon,
DuPont alleged in court filings.

After learning about Mitchell’s activities, DuPont
executives alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
according to U.S. Justice Department officials.

Mitchell later pleaded guilty to theft of trade secrets and
obstruction of justice charges and was sentenced in March 2010
to 18 months in prison.

Kolon also recruited other former DuPont workers, including
engineers and researchers, as part of a “concerted effort” to
obtain information about Kevlar, according to court filings.

“DuPont’s investment in developing this information,
amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars over many years,
was thereby essentially lost,” the company said in a filing in
October. “Kolon is now able to compete against DuPont in the
aramid marketing using DuPont’s own information against it.”

EBay’s Dispute With Craigslist Being Probed by U.S. Prosecutors

EBay Inc. said it’s cooperating with a U.S. Justice
Department investigation of its dispute with Craigslist Inc.

Prosecutors are investigating whether EBay employees stole
confidential information from Craigslist, according to a copy of
a grand jury subpoena. The online classified company claims in a
lawsuit in state court in San Francisco that EBay stole the
information to start a competing online ad site when the two
companies were negotiating over EBay buying a stake in
Craigslist.

“EBay believes that Craigslist’s allegations against EBay
are without merit.” Amanda Miller, an EBay spokeswoman, said in
a Sept. 13 e-mail.

The Sept. 7 grand jury subpoena of Craigslist seeks
information pertaining to “incidents where EBay employees
engaged in alleged criminal activities and misconduct focused
around the misappropriation of proprietary/confidential
information from Craigslist.”

The incidents include a February 2005 request by Pierre
Omidyar, EBay’s chairman and founder, for information about
Craigslist’s approach to adding new cities and advance notice of
plans to launch new cities, according to the subpoena.

In March 2007, without Craigslist’s knowledge or consent,
Brian Levey, EBay’s deputy general counsel, forwarded
Craigslist’s confidential financial information from 2004 and
2007 to members of a team starting an EBay online classified ad
site, according to the subpoena.

Troy Sauro, an attorney for San Francisco-based Craigslist,
and Jack Gillund, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in
San Francisco, declined to comment on the investigation. “

EBay, based in San Jose, California, bought a 28 percent
stake in Craigslist in 2004. The company developed an online
classified site called Kijiji in 2007. The site was renamed
EBayClassifieds.com.

Craigslist owners James Buckmaster and Craig Newmark then
enacted takeover defenses in an attempt to strip EBay of its
board seat on grounds that the minority shareholder posed a
threat to their company.

EBay sued Craigslist in Delaware, alleging the company’s
so-called poison-pill plan was enacted to punish it for starting
a competing site. EBay won a ruling last year throwing out the
poison-pill plan and upholding most of its rights as a minority
investor.

“Craigslist asserted allegations of misconduct against
EBay as a defense in the Delaware case, but the Delaware court
did not rule in Craigslist’s favor on the defense,” Miller said
in the e-mail.

Craigslist sued EBay in state court in San Francisco
alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent
misrepresentation and violation of California securities law.
EBay has denied wrongdoing and claims Craigslist breached terms
of a shareholders’ agreement between the two companies.

Patents

Google, Facebook Sued Over Text-Completion Technology

Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. were sued for allegedly
infringing a patent covering technology that provides auto-completion for computer users searching the Internet.

Google, the world’s most-used search engine, and Palo Alto,
California-based Facebook, the world’s largest social network,
infringed on the auto-completion technology patent by
incorporating it on their websites, officials of Auto-Completion
Solutions LLC contend in their lawsuit.

The companies’ use of the patented function without
permission harmed ACS, which deserves “to recover damages
adequate to compensate it for such infringement,” lawyers for
the Frisco, Texas-based company said in a complaint filed Sept.
13 in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

In dispute is patent 6,879,691, issued in April 2005.
According to the database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office, the patent was assigned to Acacia Patent Acquisitions
LLC. That assignment was recorded in the database on Sept. 6.

The patent was then assigned to Auto-Complete Solutions,
which has the same address as Acacia, a company that doesn’t
make products covered by the patents it holds. The new
assignment was recorded in the database Sept. 13, the same day
this patent suit was filed.

Other Internet information providers named in the complaint
include Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo! Inc. and Linkedin
Corp., which like Google, is based in Mountain View, California.

“We have not yet received a copy of the complaint and
won’t be able to comment until we’ve had a chance to review
it,” Jim Prosser, a Google spokesman, said in an e-mailed
statement.

Evonne Gomez Morantes, a Yahoo spokeswoman, and Erin
O’Hara, a spokeswoman for Linkedin, declined in e-mails to
comment on the suit. Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for Facebook,
didn’t immediately return calls and e-mails seeking comment.

The case is Auto-Completion Solutions LLC v. Facebook Inc.,
1:11-cv-00809-UNA, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware
(Wilmington).

Google Purchases 1,023 Patents From IBM to Bolster Portfolio

Google Inc. bought 1,023 patents from International
Business Machines Corp., part of its efforts to bolster its
portfolio as the Android operating system comes under legal
attack from rivals.

IBM transferred the patents to Google on Aug. 17, according
to records posted Sept. 13 on the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office’s website. Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Google, confirmed
the transfer and said the Mountain View, California-based
company wasn’t providing any details.

The transfer was first reported by the SEO by the Sea blog.

For more patent news, click here.

Trademark

Lauder to Become Fragrance Licensee for Italian Designer Marni

The Estee Lauder Cos., a New York-based fragrance and
cosmetics company, will become the worldwide licensee for the
Milan fashion house Marni Srl, according to a company statement.

Closely held Marni, established as a line of women’s and
men’s luxury clothing and accessories in 1994 by Conseuelo and
Gianni Fastiglioni, sells its merchandise through freestanding
boutiques and stores-within-stores, in addition to its own
website.

According to the Italian company’s website, its handbags
sell for up to $1,925, coats up to $2,020, boots up to $1,000
and t-shirts up to $370.

Among the other designers for whom Estee Lauder has
produced licensed products are Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan,
Michael Kors, Missoni, Tom Ford and Ermenegildo Zegna. The
company also produces its own brands of fragrances and cosmetics
including Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives and Estee Lauder.

Terms of the multi-year licensing arrangement with Marni
were not disclosed.

Target’s Missoni for Target Products Showing up on EBay

One day after Target Corp. began sales of Missoni-branded
products, the Minneapolis-based discount retailer’s more than
1,500 retail outlets were more or less stripped bare of a wide
range of the merchandise licensed by Sumirago, Italy’s Missoni
SpA, according to news reports.

Instead, the Missoni for Target items were turning up in
large numbers on the Internet auction site belonging to San
Jose, California’s EBay Inc.

When accessed yesterday morning, EBay had listings for more
than 27,000 Missoni for Target items, many offered at two or
three times the products’ original selling price. Sellers were
asking for up to $1,125 for the Missoni bikes, which were listed
on the Target website for $399.99.

Target’s website crashed frequently Sept. 13, the day the
Missoni for Target products were released.

VF Corp. Adds Timberland, Smartwool to Stable of Brands

VF Corp., holder of the Healthtex, Gitano, Britannia and
Wrangler brands, acquired the Timberland and Smartwool
trademarks and related IP as part of a $2.3 billion transaction,
according to a company statement.

The Timberland unit will remain in Stratham, New Hampshire,
and Smartwool will remain in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the
company said in the statement. While Timberland goods are
oriented toward hiking and mountaineering, in recent years its
gear has become a favorite of pop musicians including Nick Jonas
and Jay-Z.

Greensboro, North Carolina-based VF will “take the
Timberland and Smartwool brands to the next level,” Jeff
Swartz, former Timberland president and chief executive, said in
the company statement.

For more trademark news, click here.

Copyright

SingTel’s Opus Seeks Declaration Broadcasts Don’t Infringe

Singapore Tellecommunications Ltd.’s Australian unit is
taking the Australian Football League and the National Rugby
League to court for the right for delayed broadcasts of their
game to phone and Internet customers, the Melbourne Herald Sun
reported.

The two leagues had threatened to sue the SingTel Optus
unit for copyright infringement for broadcasting the games,
according to the Herald Sun.

An Optus spokesman told the newspaper that the company
believes the leagues’ claims are without foundation, and will
seek a court declaration that it’s not infringing the leagues’
copyrights.

Melbourne-based Telstra Corp. Ltd. has a contract with the
AFL for Internet and Broadcast rights, according to the Herald
Sun.

Ex-SAP Unit Pleads Guilty to Illegal Oracle Downloads

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton accepted the guilty
plea by the closed SAP unit yesterday in Oakland, California.

TomorrowNow was charged Sept. 8 with 11 counts of
unauthorized computer access and one count of criminal copyright
infringement.

“No other SAP entity, including SAP AG or SAP America,
will face charges arising out of the office’s investigation,”
James Dever, an SAP spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement of
the Justice Department probe.

SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, shut
the Bryan, Texas-based unit in 2008. The Waldorff, Germany-based
company was sued by Oracle in 2007 over the downloads. SAP
didn’t contest that it was liable for infringement by
TomorrowNow, which offered software upgrades and fixes to
customers who used products made by companies that were acquired
by Oracle.

Hamilton last week threw out a jury’s $1.3 billion damage
award to Oracle in its civil lawsuit against SAP. Hamilton
called the amount “grossly excessive,” and said Oracle could
agree to accept no more than $272 million in damages or retry
its case.

The criminal case is U.S. v. TomorrowNow Inc., 11-00642,
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).